While the entire article should be read, the following is from biblical scholar Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer on the sex of the fish in Jonah 2:
Abstract
This article proposes a new
understanding of the form דגה in Jonah 2:2. As is relatively well-known among
biblical scholars, the fish in Jonah seemingly changes biological sex /
grammatical gender within the narrative. While Jonah 2:1 and 11 appear to refer
to a m.sg. fish, Jonah 2:2 speaks of a f.sg. fish. This intricate textual
situation has generated a wide range of more or less fanciful interpretations,
ranging from text-historical solutions, via narratological suggestions, to the
appearance of multiple fish. The present paper challenges these suggestions and
ultimately argues that the form דגה in Jonah 2:2 is a lengthened nominal form.
These extremely rare forms often appear in the end of a clause. Other examples
of such forms are attested in Job 34:13; 37:12; and Ezek 8:2, as well as in the
geographical name Jahaz / Jahza. The current Masoretic accentuation of דגה as a
f.sg. form is a result of a misunderstanding of this archaic longer form.
. . .
Conclusion
There is no easy conclusion to
the conundrum of the gender / sex change of Jonah’s fish. Is it grammatical or
biological? Is it simply a scribal error or does it reflect a conscious scribal
decision? Is it a stylistic device that hints at the genre of the book? In this
article, I have challenged these interpretations and instead sought to
demonstrate that it is a morphological matter. The word דגה in Jonah 2:2 is not
a feminine form of the word ‘fish’. Instead, it is an archaic lengthened
nominal form. The final ה can be attached to either a masculine (e.g. נחל ,מות
,חשמל ) or a feminine ( ארץ ) noun, and it does not change its semantic range.
This type of nominal lengthening is extremely rare and occurs mostly at the end
of a clause. If this interpretation is correct, it follows that Jonah’s fish
does not display gender ambiguity and it does not change its biological sex.
Instead, it stays a (male) fish the whole time. (Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer, “A New
Look at the Biological Sex/Grammatical Gender of Jonah’s Fish,” Vetus Testamentum
67, no. 2 [2017]: 307, 323)
